8 May
2025
8 May
'25
2:04 p.m.
From: Clem Cole
The first "C" compiler wa an ephemeral state
some time in the process
of its evolution. Dennis started with his B implementation and began to
add features he needed
See:
The Development of the C Language
https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/about/dennis-m-ritchie/chist.html
for detail on the evolution.
Noel
8 May
8 May
2:22 p.m.
New subject: Ken Thomson's email address?
Thanks, Noel. I should have pointed to that paper also. I have always
considered the demarcation point when structures were added, but I darned
if I knew at what date or time Dennis chose to rename it. Clearly, one day
(night, more likely), he realized it nb was really not B anymore and needed
a new name.
ᐧ
On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 10:04 AM Noel Chiappa <jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:
From: Clem
Cole
The first "C" compiler wa an ephemeral
state some time in the process
of its evolution. Dennis started with his B implementation and began
to
add features he needed
See:
The Development of the C Language
https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/about/dennis-m-ritchie/chist.html
for detail on the evolution.
Noel
6:59 p.m.
New subject: Ken Thomson's email address?
On Thursday, May 8th, 2025 at 7:23 AM, Clem Cole <clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote:
Thanks, Noel. I should have pointed to that paper
also. I have always considered the demarcation point when structures were added, but I
darned if I knew at what date or time Dennis chose to rename it. Clearly, one day (night,
more likely), he realized it nb was really not B anymore and needed a new name.
ᐧ
On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 10:04 AM Noel Chiappa <jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
> > From: Clem Cole
>
> > The first "C" compiler wa an ephemeral state some time in the process
> > of its evolution. Dennis started with his B implementation and began to
> > add features he needed
>
> See:
>
> The Development of the C Language
> https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/about/dennis-m-ritchie/chist.html
>
> for detail on the evolution.
>
> Noel
For the record another source of old C compiler code would be in
the s1/s2 tapes here: https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/1972_stuff/
I'm not in a place to dig into them right now but one of the two
tapes is a V2 root filesystem backup, the C compiler should be
in a couple stages in /lib. Granted, its binary, but with
enough disassembly work and comparison with other sources, it
may be possible to recreate a compelling facsimile of whatever
revision that represents.
Otherwise as others have stated, the historic C compiler
situation has been quite well plundered by this and other
groups, supplemented of course by Dennis Ritchie's foresight to
keep and provide so many artifacts and anecdotes.
- Matt G.
7:38 p.m.
New subject: Ken Thomson's email address?
Seems that the subject line of this thread should be changed.
Marc
On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 1:00 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs(a)tuhs.org> wrote:
On Thursday, May 8th, 2025 at 7:23 AM, Clem Cole
<clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote:
--
Subscribe to my Photo-of-the-Week emails at my website mrochkind.com.
Thanks, Noel. I should have pointed to that paper
also. I have always
considered the demarcation point when structures were added,
but I darned
if I knew at what date or time Dennis chose to rename it. Clearly, one day
(night, more likely), he realized it nb was really not B anymore and needed
a new name.
ᐧ
On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 10:04 AM Noel Chiappa <jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:
> > From: Clem Cole
>
> > The first "C" compiler wa an ephemeral state some time in the process
> > of its evolution. Dennis started with his B implementation and began
to
> > add features he needed
>
> See:
>
> The Development of the C Language
> https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/about/dennis-m-ritchie/chist.html
>
> for detail on the evolution.
>
> Noel
For the record another source of old C compiler code would be in
the s1/s2 tapes here:
https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/1972_stuff/
I'm not in a place to dig into them right now but one of the two
tapes is a V2 root filesystem backup, the C compiler should be
in a couple stages in /lib. Granted, its binary, but with
enough disassembly work and comparison with other sources, it
may be possible to recreate a compelling facsimile of whatever
revision that represents.
Otherwise as others have stated, the historic C compiler
situation has been quite well plundered by this and other
groups, supplemented of course by Dennis Ritchie's foresight to
keep and provide so many artifacts and anecdotes.
- Matt G.
9 May
9 May
1:42 a.m.
New subject: Old C compilers (was: Ken Thomson's email address?)
On Thursday, 8 May 2025 at 13:38:19 -0600, Marc Rochkind wrote:
On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 1:00 PM segaloco via TUHS
<tuhs(a)tuhs.org> wrote:
>
> For the record another source of old C compiler code would be in
> the s1/s2 tapes here:
> https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/1972_stuff/
>
> I'm not in a place to dig into them right now but one of the two
> tapes is a V2 root filesystem backup, the C compiler should be
> in a couple stages in /lib. Granted, its binary, but with
> enough disassembly work and comparison with other sources, it
> may be possible to recreate a compelling facsimile of whatever
> revision that represents.
Years ago (February 2000) I got the sources of a 1972 C compiler that
I was able to compile and run on FreeBSD. The tarball should be
called last1120c.tar.gz . I assume that I got it from the TUHS
archive, but if you can't find it, let me know.
Seems that the subject line of this thread should be
changed.
Agreed. You, too, could have done this.
Greg
--
Sent from my desktop computer.
Finger grog(a)lemis.com for PGP public key.
See complete headers for address and phone numbers.
This message is digitally signed. If your Microsoft mail program
reports problems, please read http://lemis.com/broken-MUA.php
1
days inactive
2
days old
4 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
Clem Cole -
Greg 'groggy' Lehey -
jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu -
Marc Rochkind -
segaloco